Nature and fire: a tale of Chaos
by Nival Vixen
Summary: COMPLETE! Layla's path was once filled with light and flowers. But slowly, Layla began to change, and now, the sweetly scented path burns around her. Layla/Warren. A tale of Chaos.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Sky High or any characters.

_Read on, oh faithful ones_...

...

It had started soon after Will had dumped her, Layla eventually decided. He had dumped her without reason or explanation, and then had started dating Magenta only days later. Zach hadn't talked to anyone for weeks beforehand, but no one knew that this was the reason why. But it hadn't mattered. Soon after Will and Magenta became Will-and-Magenta, Zach had decided to spend his time volunteering for Mr. Medulla's lab experiments. He now glowed day or night, and he didn't talk much anymore.

Her mother had tried to talk to her, about hearts and unpredictable love, and a lot of stuff that just didn't seem to apply to her. Ever since kindergarten, she and Will had been Layla-and-Will, even before they'd officially become a couple in their first year of high school. They'd always been together, but he hadn't even had the decency to explain **why** he didn't want to be with her anymore. She had tried to talk to him, but he refused to look at her, and soon, she simply stopped trying.

With Will-and-Magenta doing more sucking face than eating, lunchtimes became uncomfortable. Ethan began to study on his own in the library, and soon became friends with a group of super-nerds that seemed out of place, even with their hero status.

So, with all of her friends moving on, there had been little for Layla to do but to spend more time with Warren. He'd never talked about why things hadn't worked out with the Freeze Girl after prom, but Layla could see the uneasy emotion on his face when he saw her, and figured that neither one had liked a relationship that cancelled out their powers. (Apparently, a few years after high school, Freeze Girl started her own ice skating rink in the middle of the Chihuahuan desert.)

She spent her lunchtime with Warren outside, sitting on the wall in front of the school. Then, Layla soon found herself going to find him during free period, and even sitting beside him in the gymnasium during Save the Citizen. (They'd been put together by Coach Boomer, fighting against Will and Magenta. Layla didn't know what Boomer was trying to do by making them face each other, but whatever it was, it hadn't worked. She and Warren had kicked their butts; his fire deadly against Will's flight and strength, and her vines caging Magenta in seconds. They'd stood back as the Citizen was ripped apart by metal teeth, and Layla had felt the stirrings then. Satisfaction, and the beginning of indifference. She told herself later that it wasn't a real person, just a mannequin, and of course she would have saved it if it had been a real person. _Of course she would have_...)

Layla spent more and more time at the Paper Lantern, studying in the low light of the restaurant when they weren't busy, or in the bright fluorescent lights in corner of the kitchen if Mrs. Woo didn't think she was getting in the way. She listened to the Chinese that Warren and Mrs. Woo bantered in, slowly falling in love with the way the sounds shaped his mouth, even when in impatience. Layla began to notice Warren more and more every passing week; his long fingers clicking to light a candle, the broad heart-melting smile of his lips, the curve of his shoulder, his strong arms emphasised by his singlets, the slow embers that he began to fan and light within her body, spreading from her stomach to warm her entire body.

She started to read one of the books she'd seen him reading over the past year and a half, and when he'd noticed, he hadn't said anything negative about it; he'd simply suggested some other books that he thought she'd enjoy. When she was at home and Warren wasn't around, she would research his life. Layla found that there was an abounding amount of information about his father's exploits over the years, but nothing about _why_ he'd done it. And there was a ridiculously small amount about Warren's mother, only that she'd testified against her husband and the father of her child during his infamous trial. (_Battle vs. Stronghold_; or rather, villain vs. hero. It was no contest, and upon looking into it further, Layla couldn't help but feel that justice hadn't been met completely. Yes, the Baron had kidnapped and killed people, but in order to catch him, Stronghold had brought an entire building down, killing innocent people in the process. Stronghold had done community service, which had been shortened after the public outcry about their beloved hero picking up rubbish on the side a freeway. Baron Battle, on the other hand, had been sentenced to lifetime imprisonment with parole only after his fourth reincarnation.)

Layla was surprised to realise one afternoon that apart from the occasional glance in the hallway, a nod or two on the bus or in class, she hadn't even seen or talked to Will outside of school in almost three months. She commented on it to Warren, adding in slight confusion that she didn't even care about the loss. She thought she would have been crying, or despairing in some internal black hole for these past five months, but after the first few weeks of stunned confusion and a kernel of anger, there was nothing. So she thought. Because, as Layla very well knew, something as small as a kernel of anger can sprout and grow and grow, until it encompasses the entire world.

It was a silly thing that set the anger off, really. Something as small as a drop of rain returning to the ocean. Stretch and Dash were released from gaol on probation and under house-arrest and instructions to complete a year's worth of community service each and in separate towns to avoid further contact with each other. Penny's two-faced lies to the court and jury (all made up of truth-seers, implemented soon after Baron Battle's trial) had kept her imprisoned for life along with Stitches and Royal Pain herself. Layla's anger had exploded later that night, along with all of the flowers in the restaurant. One moment, the tables held pretty daisies in thin vases, and the next, a shower of petals were falling from the ceiling. During her rant, Layla had let it slip that Warren's own father's judgement hadn't been so lenient, revealing that she had been looking up on him. Warren had quietened her, his face as stern as she'd ever seen, and his body radiating intense heat. She left soon after righting the flowers, certain that he was upset with her and would have no desire to talk to her again.

Layla had managed to avoid Warren for three whole days before he'd take her arm and pulled her outside behind the school, his fingers branding into her skin. There had been words exchanged, some harsh, some truthful, but most forgotten over the weeks, months, years since. Then the words had died and Layla had found herself kissing Warren, surprising herself. But it was even more surprising to find Warren kissing her back. His lips crushing against hers, his hands on her waist, the heat from his body warming her in ways that she hadn't thought possible outside of cheesy movies and cheap novels. Without her realising it, plants of all kind and variety had sprouted from the ground, twirling around them. As they continued to kiss, the temperature rose, the fact not helped by the plants enclosing them. His arms wrapped around her and a fire began to rage.

It had taken the flickering of flames behind Layla's eyes to realise that the fire was burning, and more importantly, wasn't burning her. She opened them, gently pulling away from Warren as she saw that her plants were surrounding them. She found it odd to see that they weren't burning either, but then she saw that it was a Black Wattle, and Layla had to wonder how she had somehow known that she would need this particular kind of fire-resistant plant. Warren had simply stared at her with dark eyes, a smoulder in his gaze that she might have seen on him before this, and moved in to kiss her once more. The fire had burned without harming either of them.

Some time later, Warren had taken her to meet his father in prison. It was an outing that neither had told their mothers about, his because she wouldn't allow it, no matter his age, and hers because she wouldn't understand. Meeting Baron Battle had been both terrifying and exhilarating. It had been an eye-opener, a life-changer, and a decision-maker all rolled in one. She had seen the haggard look on Battle's face, the washed out colour of his skin, the complete lack of nutrition from the food he was given. She had seen the guards that patrolled, the ones that were stationed at some doors, the ones who looked less than human than the ones they were guarding. And then there was the complete lack of plant life anywhere. Not a potted plant, not a garden, or even a weed growing between cracks. It was all stone, metal, and magical suppressors. The moment they were outside, Layla had made Warren promise that no matter what happened, he would never let her become like that, in that place, without a flower in sight. He'd understood what she meant perfectly, and then made her promise the same thing.

Perhaps that was when she'd first known that she didn't want to be a hero anymore, didn't have the patience in her anymore to be a hero, didn't have a way to stop the ever-growing anger inside her. The emotion was blooming inside of her, it's branches reaching up and extending throughout every part of her body and mind, wrapping around her and consuming her.

Warren had seen that something was bothering her later that night at the Paper Lantern, and they'd talked together in Chinese, snippets of conversation between washing dishes and mouthfuls of food. By the end of it, she'd realised that her own growing kernel of anger was similar to the sensation that Warren felt every time his entire being began to burn.

When they slept together, it was another life-changing experience. As she'd seen with Will - when a simple kiss could make him fly, and an outburst like the need to protect those who had been friends - emotions could be powerful. Her first orgasm had made the plants outside burst into full bloom, no matter that it was the middle of the night. The second had caused all of the trees to lose their leaves, no matter that it was spring. The third orgasm had made the earth itself literally shake and explode. The trees in the ground lifted, their roots pulling from the dirt and earth that they held themselves within, and then, then the entire trunks had exploded into pieces. The results of Warren's orgasm created a small fire in the room, Layla creating a plant to take the worst of it so his mother wouldn't have to pay for repairs.

They worked together to control their powers, both separately and together, in and out of the classroom, the gymnasium, the bedroom. And still, the anger within her continued to grow. It had morphed into something terrible and beautiful at the same time. Flowers began to die when she started to walk a path between them. Trees began to wither if she ventured too close. With Warren beside her, the flowers turned to ash, the trees caught on fire, and the path they walked burned.

By the time anyone else had bothered to notice that something was wrong, they were both too far gone. They had fallen to the darker side of their powers: the destruction of nature, and the burning devastation of fire. Between them, chaos reigned, and together, they were unstoppable. Will and his parents fought hard, valiantly almost, but they lost and fell to Chaos.

Zach, Magenta, Ethan with his new friends, and even Ron Wilson (ex-bus driver) had teamed up, and they too had fallen. Principal Powers, Sonic Boom, Mr. Medulla, Mr. Boy, they each toppled one by one before them, like dominos in a children's game. Heroes in retirement came out to fight, and slowly, as each of them lost to Chaos, others came out to pledge their allegiance. It hadn't taken long before they ruled the world itself. She, a queen upon a throne of trees and he, a king upon a throne of fire, both of them willing to kill and die for the other.

Together, they were Chaos and ruled as nature and fire, their sweetly scented path burning brightly around them.

...

The end.

Thank you for reading!


End file.
